Ask HN: Do you use wireless activity trackers? (Striiv, Fitbit, Jawbone)
There are a lot of companies competing in the fitness technology sector, and being that HN is read by a lot of technologists and early adopters, I'm curious what everyones take is on these devices.
I have a Fitbit Ultra, and have used a Striiv and Jawbone, but I haven't used them as regularly as I thought I would. I bought a fitbit zip for my wife and she's been wearing it daily. We like it better than the runkeeper on the phone bc there are many times during the day when the phone is not "on your person". For example, getting up to go to the printer, you leave your phone at the desk. However, you're still taking steps and burning calories. I think the fitbit web site / app could be better with the types of badges / encouragement but thats just my 0.02. In my country (BR), which is normally around 3 years behind the first world in most tech stuff, there is a popularity explosion w/ the app Runkeeper for running. (Example: we now have Netflix but it has almost no relevant shows) The conclusion being: I have no idea what those are and when would use them instead of your phone. They're activity trackers. You start them to your wrist/pants and turn it on. Then it tracks the steps you've taken, calories burned, stairs climbed, your sleep pattern. Some even have hearth rate monitoring.
The point is that it's active 24/7 not just during workouts. These gadgets are part of the quantifiable self movement.